Just wanted to drop a note to wish you a Blessed CHRISTmas! Our family will be arriving throughout the weekend and will be here a few days so I plan to spend every precious moment we have together! You probably won't hear from me for a week! LOL!

I am so thankful Jesus came, experienced life as we know it, remained sinless and brought eternal life. What a beautiful plan from our Heavenly Father! Thank You Jesus for coming!

Remember that song? The words not only were catchy but it was also a catchy tune. After it's release, it wasn't long before we saw smiley face t-shirts with the logo everywhere. Just to think about it made you feel 'good' inside. Don't worry! Be Happy!

Although it seemed an original phrase, that sentiment was shared over 2000 years ago not only through the life of Jesus and His teachings but even before that. In the Psalms not only did David tell us not to worry but he also told us 'how' not to worry.

Psalm 34:9 "Fear the Lord, you holy people who belong to him. Those who fear him are never in need." Instead of fear, one translation uses the word "Honor". Honor Him,Fear Him, Worship Him, Trust Him! He clearly promises if we worship Him first all of our needs will be met.

No I didn't say wants. LOL! But hey, what do we REALLY need? Shelter, Food, Clothing and others to love and be loved by.

I have a challenge for you and me! The next time we start worrying let's start praising God instead. If there's something we need to do to 'fix' whatever we're worrying about, He'll reveal it to us. In the meantime, I like that feeling that says I don't need to worry about anything. What about you?

I have to laugh when I think of how many different passwords I have for the different areas of my life. Some people use the same ones but not me. Don't get me wrong, I started out using the same ones but then the rules changed. 'You need 6 characters...one must be capitalized...no characters please....at least one character..." You understand what I'm saying, I'm sure! It gets so confusing we have a list and whenever one is changed or a new one is created, the list gets updated.

We have a lot of passwords when it comes to our day-to-day lives too. "How are you? I'm fine" "Boy it's hot today!" "When are you going to take care of that? Later." We use them so often we don't need a list to keep track of them...they're already part of our vocabulary. The difference between our passwords for computer (banking, billing, etc.) activities is they have no real meaning. They may be based on something that is personal to us so we will remember them more easily but to the receiver, they're just numbers, letters & characters. Our day-to-day passwords often carry a much deeper message.

They may protect us from getting too close to someone by not sharing our deepest thoughts. They may be used as excuses because we don't want to do what someone is asking of us. They may be a way to say what we're thinking without the other person hearing what we're really saying. HUH?

Remember when you were young and you would create 'secret messages' from your own message code for you & your closest buds? Why did you do that? Because that was a way to share what was deepest in your heart with someone you trusted. Now that we're adults we do the same thing except it's a little more sophisticated...we choose our word 'passwords' more carefully. I suppose there's really nothing wrong with doing that but it becomes a problem when it moves into our relationship with Christ.

We 'assign' our own definition to Who He is and what He'll do based on our own beliefs. Big mistake! We might be talking about Him to someone & find ourselves using old cliches instead of sharing Biblical truths. & sharing what's truly on our hearts! And what about when we mess us? How do we relate to God? Do we hide or try to 'sugar coat' our situation when we tell Him about it? Why do we do this? Fear, anger, self-justification?

'Passwords' are great when it comes to protecting us from others seeing sensitive information that could put our financial lives in jeopardy but when it comes to our lives and relationships with others, we need to be more honest. I remember my mom telling me when we lie, it creates a lot of chaos because you always have to keep track of the first lie so when you tell the second (third,fourth, etc.) you don't contradict yourself. Pretty hard to do! And when it comes to God, there's no reason to use 'Passwords', He already knows everything about you, loves you anyway and there's nothing you can do about it!

Everyone wants to simplify their lives! Just lighten up on the day-to-day 'Passwords' & you'll be amazed how much simpler life can be! :-)

The past two days have been somewhat stressful...well kind of. You see my brother was to have stents placed in a couple of arteries leading to his heart yesterday but...well, let me just explain.

After arriving early and going through the regular pre-op routine, he waited in a surgical waiting room with his family for several hours. At that point, he was escorted to a room with a bed where he could rest and wait some more. During this time, he laughed and joked with all of us and was not in the least bothered by the delay of his inevitable surgery. After 2 hours, he was moved to a pre-op room and we all thought...AT LAST! By this time he was several hours past the scheduled operation but he continued having one of the best attitudes I'd ever seen. Another 2 hours passed and the doctors were still tied up with another surgery that had not gone as expected and they told my brother his would be postponed to today. Honestly I was at my breaking point but continued to smile and be encouraging (God knew what was really going on in my heart!). But you know what? My sweet brother turned to me and asked why would a guy with a hang nail get bent out of shape over the doctors caring for someone who was having heart surgery? He continued with "It's ok to wait til tomorrow...everyone will be more rested anyway." After that he returned to smiling and joking. He really made me stop and think. I can only hope and pray that God will give me the grace to have the same attitude whenever I approach the roadblocks of life. How blessed I am to have witnessed such a great display of kindness and mercy in a very stressful situation.

BTW...he had his surgery this morning and it went quite well. We continue to pray for a quick recovery and I pray that God will always help me remember the gift I was given while waiting for my brother's surgery...to recognize everything is in His control just as my brother did.